May
23,
2023
Like her on screen counterpart of a beloved monarch, Alicia Vikander was treated to an eight-minute standing ovation at the May 21 Cannes premiere of director Karim Aïnouz’s “Firebrand,” from a crowd that included best actress Oscar winners Michelle Yeoh and Marion Cotillard.
As the standing ovation went on, Alicia Vikander motioned for the cheering audience to stop or she would cry. But then she gave into the adulation and blew kisses to the upper balconies. Alicia Vikander’s co-star Jude Law, who plays a cruel and merciless King Henry VIII, and Brazilian helmer Aïnouz also got huge applause from the crowd at the Palais. Alicia Vikander joins a group of this year’s Cannes leading ladies including Lily Gladstone, Natalie Portman and Julianne Moore who have turned in show-stopping performances.
Oscar-winner Alicia Vikander stars in Firebrand as Katherine Parr, the sixth and final wife of the brutal king, as she tries to outmaneuver and outlast the barely recognizable law. The film, adapted from the 2013 novel “Queen’s Gambit” by Elizabeth Fremantle, takes place in blood-soaked Tudor England as Katherine Parr is named Regent while the tyrannical Henry is fighting overseas. When the increasingly ailing and paranoid monarch returns, he turns his fury on the radicals and charges his wife’s childhood friend with treason and burns her at the stake. Horrified and grieving but forced to deny it, Katherine finds herself fighting for her own survival, terrified that she will end up beheaded like some of Henry’s prior wives.
Amazon’s Prime Video has picked up the royal drama in a handful of territories, including the United Kingdom. Firebrand is seeking U.S. distribution and is being sold by CAA and FilmNation.
